1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a method, system and computer-readable recording medium for providing an electronic map-based service. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a method, system and computer-readable recording medium that can store a particular place on an electronic map in association with image data corresponding to the is particular place on the electronic map, and link a particular region or pixel on the stored image data with other image data to provide the other image data when a user clicks the particular region of the image data while searching for the image data.
2. Discussion of the Background
With recent increase in use of the Internet and distribution of global positioning system (GPS) receivers, geographical information such as maps and the like is supplied to a user generally in the form of digital data that replaces traditional printed matter such as books or the like. Digital geographical information is generally supplied through an electronic map service via the Internet, a navigation system equipped to vehicles, and the like. Advantageously, the digital geographical information is often coupled to a user interface module having a retrieval function to provide various conveniences to a user. Further, when there is a need to change the geographical information, it can be easily updated through remote operation or the like, so that the digital geographical information is preferable to conventional printed matter because it can be easily kept current and up-to-date.
Conventionally, however, service providers for digital geographical information provide electronic map screens coupled to retrieval interfaces and operated to display a simple combination of marks. Since information displayed on the electronic map screens is remarkably different from an actual image of a place corresponding to the information, it is difficult to confirm the actual image of the corresponding place based on the information.
Therefore, in an attempt to solve such a problem, US Patent Application Publication No. 2008-0143727, filed on Nov. 8, 2007 and published on Jun. 19, 2008, discloses a technique for an electronic map service, which allows panoramic image data corresponding to a particular place on an electronic map to be provided to a user, while allowing different panoramic image data corresponding to a place displayed on a certain region of the panoramic image data to be provided to the user when the user clicks the certain region of the panoramic image data. Accordingly, the user can confirm an actual image of the particular place on the electronic map based on the panoramic image data, and can search for different panoramic data image showing, in more detail, the particular place on the panoramic data image, which is being searched by the user, via a link between these panoramic data.
However, the publication merely discloses a technique that permits the link between the panoramic image data to be manually generated by a user or a provider of the panoramic image data. Thus, the technique has a problem in that difficulty in management of the link information becomes severe as the image data is accumulated by the geographical information service.